30 tips and tricks to increase battery life on your BB10 Blackberry 10 device
Blackberry made a transition from BB7 to BB10 a couple of years ago. While many reviewers agreed that it was the most complete smartphone OS, Blackberry's confidence in its corporate customers brought it down. Those using keyboard based BB7 devices didn't take kindly to the all touch Z10. A lack of app ecosystem similar to Google play and Apple Itunes almost nailed the coffin and blackberry was looking for a buyer. The OS usability was recognized a little too late but still Blackberry started gaining market share. While the first Z10 had a similar battery issue like the Iphone, Blackberry was quick to tweak the latest firmware upgrades to increase phone battery life and the newer phones also got a bigger battery.
But if you still have a battery life issue, here is a complete list of tips and tricks to increase battery life on your Blackberry
1. OLED screen dark wallpaper: BB phones like Z30 and Q10 come with an OLED screen. OLED screens feature a technology where using a dark wallpaper helps increase battery life since those parts of the screen are powered off.
2. Full to zero charge: Most newer phones come with Li-Ion batteries which perform flawlessly. You will find that running the battery to 0-1% before charging and then charging the phone to 100% helps extract a better battery life.
3. Location OFF: Most of the time, our phone wants the location to be on, whether it be the Geotag of camera or the location spotting of Whatsapp. Keeping that GPS off helps not only in increasing battery life but also stop companies from tracking your activities. (this danger applies least to the Blackberry though). Go to settings, select location and then switch off.
4. NFC off: NFC is probably the one chip that uses least power, but since there aren't really many gadgets yet in the open market that make use of this technology, you can switch it off. Go to settings, select networks and connection, switch off.
5. Switch off Wi-fi: If we start disabling everything on the phone, what is it worth? Correct, but it is a common habit to forget switching off Wi-fi when not in use. Let's say we are at work and using wi-fi, when we leave work, the connection is lost and the wi-fi radio keeps searching for a signal. Blackberry gives a shortcut to switch off wi-fi for the very same reason. This also applies to Wireless internet tethering. Go to Settings, select Networks and connections, switch off wi-fi. Browse below to wireless hotspot, switch off.
6. Disable auto update check in blackberry world: This feature is on by default. But do we really need Blackberry world servers to keep checking for updates to the installed apps. Such app updates might come once in a month, so a manual check not only saves battery life but also the precious network data. Open Blackberry world> swipe down and select settings> select network and data limits and select download over wi-fi only and switch off download large files over mobile network.
7. Dim backlight to usable brightness: Screen brightness is one of the top factors for losing that juice on your battery. Swipe down on your screen to reveal quick settings, click on the square button to the left of brightness and adjust the brightness as per your requirement.
8. Backlight timeout: Along with adjusting the brightness, adjusting the backlight timeout also helps conserve battery. go to Settings>Display> Screen timeout.
9. Switch off Bluetooth: Bluetooth is fasting getting relegated to the backseat with the advent of 3g and Wi-fi. Still it is the most convenient way for transferring files or specific data between devices. But Bluetooth radio also eats up 3-4% of battery life in a day. Hence when you are not playing songs in your car via Bluetooth or when you are finished transferring files, switch it off. Go to settings> networks and connections> Bluetooth.
10. Switch off 3G/4G when not in use: 3G and 4G has made life very simple and fast when it comes to things on the internet. But they also use up battery fast. Hence it is a good choice to switch down to 2G when the faster network speeds are not available. Usually switching data to 2G or off helps when sleeping at night.
11. Find corner of room with good coverage at night.We all know how phones are dangerous for our health. Hence keeping that away from our body at night is a good option. It might just help further to find a corner of the room when the phone gets that additional tower of reception.
12. Close unused open apps from active frames: Blackberry has the best Multitasking Features of any phones second only to the Sailfish OS with its Active covers. But keeping apps open means they keep running in the background using up CPU processes. Flick up on the home screen and close all unused applications by clicking on the X at the bottom right.
13. Use bedside mode at night: A very nifty feature on the BB10 is the Bedside mode. On the lockscreen (not the desktop) flick down your finger on the phone and the bedside mode gets activated. This silences all notifications and helps save battery time as well as undisturbed sleep. Bedside mode is coupled with clock and alarm which makes a strong case for itself. Also the colours are light on the eyes so your droopy eyes don't have to adjust to the bright screen.
14. Disable vibration: Vibration is that silent killer which takes up battery life. Go to Settings> Notifications and disable vibration for those apps you do not need a reminder for. A similar exercise can also be done on chat apps such as BBM and Whatsapp where we can disable certain specific groups or people.
15. Uninstall unused apps: Most phone come with loads of bloatware from the network or the manufacturer. For example Verizon puts its apps on the phone and blackberry pushes its apps. Uninstalling helps free up the phone and making it feel more snappier. Hold the icon of the app to be uninstalled. Click on the bin that appears and you are don.
16. Change emails push to fetch Change the email check system from push to fetch. This stops the server
from checking the emails from the server regularly. Instead fetch helps get emails when we want them. Go to settings> accounts> change the duration of email fetch.
17. Change apps to use dark background (LCD limitations): BB10 has provided 'enable dark background' on their phones since 10.2. This is mostly helpful on phones with OLED screens though.Dark background settings are app specific such as for whatsapp, BBM, blackberry hub, contacts and messaging.
18. Use lockscreen to check messages: Like most smartphone from Android and Apple, BB10 OS also has an interactive lockscreen which lets you check message before opening the phone. This saves time by not needing to unlock the phone and go to the specific app to check messages or updates. Just click on the unlock button and touch the app for which you want to check an update.
19. Use offline maps navigation: Most embedded navigation maps require mobile data for accuracy. But new map apps such as Navmii does away with the need for a data plan while using gps.
20. Turn off media sharing Turn of media sharing. Go to Settings> Media sharing. switch off all options.
21. Restrict run in background permission for apps not in use: Most apps installed on the phone take permission to run services in background. Go to settings and restrict all permission for apps not in use.
22. Disable swipe to unlock: This is an innovative feature on the Blackberry phones but it uses battery life. Also, the button at the top does a similar job.
23. Use a case (auto screen off): Blackberry provides cases which have a feature of turning the screen off when the phone is inserted using the proximity sensor. They are handy as well as battery savers.
24. BB10 updates: Many people don't update their phones even after the companies provide safer OTA updates. These updates do not spoil your phone and provide better features since the bugs have been taken care of. But wait for 3-4 proper charge cycles for the phone to settle in.
25. Disable Blackberry assistant: Blackberry assistant is the more smooth less nonsense version of Siri and Cortana. But I don't remember the last time I used it. switch it off. Under settings go to voice commands and switch it off.
26. Enable battery saving mode: This is a new feature available upwards from 10.3.1.It helps to enable battery savings mode when battery is running low and a power outlet is not available for a long time for e.g. travelling.
27. Disable blackberry blend: Another app from Blackberry which shows the potential of technology. But it is still not as usable as we would want it to be. Disable it under settings.
28. disable auto update check for firmware.: Firmwares or software updates are not released everyday. It is a good option to disable them. Go to settings> Firmware updates> settings> disable.
29. turn off advanced interactions.: Another new feature on Blackberry phones from 10.3.1 onwards are a great addition which use the built in sensors. Not important, switch them off. Go to settings > Advanced interactions> switch off.
30. Disable blackberry priority hub.: Priority hub is a part of Blackberry hub since 10.2. But to me it is personally clutter on an otherwise awesome feature (blackberry hub). Switch it off.
But if you still have a battery life issue, here is a complete list of tips and tricks to increase battery life on your Blackberry
1. OLED screen dark wallpaper: BB phones like Z30 and Q10 come with an OLED screen. OLED screens feature a technology where using a dark wallpaper helps increase battery life since those parts of the screen are powered off.
2. Full to zero charge: Most newer phones come with Li-Ion batteries which perform flawlessly. You will find that running the battery to 0-1% before charging and then charging the phone to 100% helps extract a better battery life.
3. Location OFF: Most of the time, our phone wants the location to be on, whether it be the Geotag of camera or the location spotting of Whatsapp. Keeping that GPS off helps not only in increasing battery life but also stop companies from tracking your activities. (this danger applies least to the Blackberry though). Go to settings, select location and then switch off.
4. NFC off: NFC is probably the one chip that uses least power, but since there aren't really many gadgets yet in the open market that make use of this technology, you can switch it off. Go to settings, select networks and connection, switch off.
5. Switch off Wi-fi: If we start disabling everything on the phone, what is it worth? Correct, but it is a common habit to forget switching off Wi-fi when not in use. Let's say we are at work and using wi-fi, when we leave work, the connection is lost and the wi-fi radio keeps searching for a signal. Blackberry gives a shortcut to switch off wi-fi for the very same reason. This also applies to Wireless internet tethering. Go to Settings, select Networks and connections, switch off wi-fi. Browse below to wireless hotspot, switch off.
6. Disable auto update check in blackberry world: This feature is on by default. But do we really need Blackberry world servers to keep checking for updates to the installed apps. Such app updates might come once in a month, so a manual check not only saves battery life but also the precious network data. Open Blackberry world> swipe down and select settings> select network and data limits and select download over wi-fi only and switch off download large files over mobile network.
7. Dim backlight to usable brightness: Screen brightness is one of the top factors for losing that juice on your battery. Swipe down on your screen to reveal quick settings, click on the square button to the left of brightness and adjust the brightness as per your requirement.
8. Backlight timeout: Along with adjusting the brightness, adjusting the backlight timeout also helps conserve battery. go to Settings>Display> Screen timeout.
9. Switch off Bluetooth: Bluetooth is fasting getting relegated to the backseat with the advent of 3g and Wi-fi. Still it is the most convenient way for transferring files or specific data between devices. But Bluetooth radio also eats up 3-4% of battery life in a day. Hence when you are not playing songs in your car via Bluetooth or when you are finished transferring files, switch it off. Go to settings> networks and connections> Bluetooth.
10. Switch off 3G/4G when not in use: 3G and 4G has made life very simple and fast when it comes to things on the internet. But they also use up battery fast. Hence it is a good choice to switch down to 2G when the faster network speeds are not available. Usually switching data to 2G or off helps when sleeping at night.
11. Find corner of room with good coverage at night.We all know how phones are dangerous for our health. Hence keeping that away from our body at night is a good option. It might just help further to find a corner of the room when the phone gets that additional tower of reception.
12. Close unused open apps from active frames: Blackberry has the best Multitasking Features of any phones second only to the Sailfish OS with its Active covers. But keeping apps open means they keep running in the background using up CPU processes. Flick up on the home screen and close all unused applications by clicking on the X at the bottom right.
13. Use bedside mode at night: A very nifty feature on the BB10 is the Bedside mode. On the lockscreen (not the desktop) flick down your finger on the phone and the bedside mode gets activated. This silences all notifications and helps save battery time as well as undisturbed sleep. Bedside mode is coupled with clock and alarm which makes a strong case for itself. Also the colours are light on the eyes so your droopy eyes don't have to adjust to the bright screen.
14. Disable vibration: Vibration is that silent killer which takes up battery life. Go to Settings> Notifications and disable vibration for those apps you do not need a reminder for. A similar exercise can also be done on chat apps such as BBM and Whatsapp where we can disable certain specific groups or people.
15. Uninstall unused apps: Most phone come with loads of bloatware from the network or the manufacturer. For example Verizon puts its apps on the phone and blackberry pushes its apps. Uninstalling helps free up the phone and making it feel more snappier. Hold the icon of the app to be uninstalled. Click on the bin that appears and you are don.
16. Change emails push to fetch Change the email check system from push to fetch. This stops the server
from checking the emails from the server regularly. Instead fetch helps get emails when we want them. Go to settings> accounts> change the duration of email fetch.
17. Change apps to use dark background (LCD limitations): BB10 has provided 'enable dark background' on their phones since 10.2. This is mostly helpful on phones with OLED screens though.Dark background settings are app specific such as for whatsapp, BBM, blackberry hub, contacts and messaging.
18. Use lockscreen to check messages: Like most smartphone from Android and Apple, BB10 OS also has an interactive lockscreen which lets you check message before opening the phone. This saves time by not needing to unlock the phone and go to the specific app to check messages or updates. Just click on the unlock button and touch the app for which you want to check an update.
19. Use offline maps navigation: Most embedded navigation maps require mobile data for accuracy. But new map apps such as Navmii does away with the need for a data plan while using gps.
20. Turn off media sharing Turn of media sharing. Go to Settings> Media sharing. switch off all options.
21. Restrict run in background permission for apps not in use: Most apps installed on the phone take permission to run services in background. Go to settings and restrict all permission for apps not in use.
22. Disable swipe to unlock: This is an innovative feature on the Blackberry phones but it uses battery life. Also, the button at the top does a similar job.
23. Use a case (auto screen off): Blackberry provides cases which have a feature of turning the screen off when the phone is inserted using the proximity sensor. They are handy as well as battery savers.
24. BB10 updates: Many people don't update their phones even after the companies provide safer OTA updates. These updates do not spoil your phone and provide better features since the bugs have been taken care of. But wait for 3-4 proper charge cycles for the phone to settle in.
25. Disable Blackberry assistant: Blackberry assistant is the more smooth less nonsense version of Siri and Cortana. But I don't remember the last time I used it. switch it off. Under settings go to voice commands and switch it off.
26. Enable battery saving mode: This is a new feature available upwards from 10.3.1.It helps to enable battery savings mode when battery is running low and a power outlet is not available for a long time for e.g. travelling.
27. Disable blackberry blend: Another app from Blackberry which shows the potential of technology. But it is still not as usable as we would want it to be. Disable it under settings.
28. disable auto update check for firmware.: Firmwares or software updates are not released everyday. It is a good option to disable them. Go to settings> Firmware updates> settings> disable.
29. turn off advanced interactions.: Another new feature on Blackberry phones from 10.3.1 onwards are a great addition which use the built in sensors. Not important, switch them off. Go to settings > Advanced interactions> switch off.
30. Disable blackberry priority hub.: Priority hub is a part of Blackberry hub since 10.2. But to me it is personally clutter on an otherwise awesome feature (blackberry hub). Switch it off.
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